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Process for beginning Asian languages

 Language Learning Forum : General discussion Post Reply
20 messages over 3 pages: 1 2
fabriciocarraro
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Brazil
russoparabrasileirosRegistered users can see my Skype Name
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989 posts - 1454 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French
Studies: Dutch, German, Japanese

 
 Message 17 of 20
30 June 2014 at 2:58am | IP Logged 
Irish_Goon wrote:
I love Assimil but I am not quite sure that those books can be utilized as effectively in a language like Mandarin compared with something like German.



I think I'll have to disagree in a way.
I've done the first ~22 lessons of Assimil Japanese and it's a very nice course! You probably won't learn how to write, but it can really develop your listening/speaking. The transcription/transalations are amazing, you can find both a "natural" translation and a more literal one. Finally, the grammar notes are very very good as well.

I you want to learn how to write, it's probably not for you, but for those wanting to start communicating soon, it can be very very helpful!
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evilado
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64 posts - 82 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: French, Mandarin

 
 Message 18 of 20
30 June 2014 at 4:55pm | IP Logged 
fabriciocarraro wrote:

The transcription/transalations are amazing, you can find both a "natural" translation
and a more literal one. Finally, the grammar notes are very very good as well.

I you want to learn how to write, it's probably not for you, but for those wanting to
start communicating soon, it can be very very helpful!


I'll second this statement. I would say that Assimil can be a bit overwhelming for an
absolute beginner, but having the two translations and lots of grammar notes is a
godsend for Mandarin.

I've been dabbling in Mandarin for about a year and a half now, and if I had to start
over, I'd start with Pimsleur/Michel Thomas, then Assimil/FSI. After that, start
Anki/Memrise for the characters and something like Chinesepod/cc101 before moving on to
native materials.
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cathrynm
Senior Member
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junglevision.co
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910 posts - 1232 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Japanese, Finnish

 
 Message 19 of 20
30 June 2014 at 5:57pm | IP Logged 
Assimil Japanese was just so so so so slow. Even at beginner level, I found the slow speech maddening, I couldn't do it. I think I'd prefer audio at normal speed, but with limited vocabulary.
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BobbyE
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226 posts - 331 votes 
Speaks: English*, Mandarin

 
 Message 20 of 20
03 July 2014 at 5:40am | IP Logged 
I started Mandarin with Assimil and that is exactly what I'd use if I started over again. I've also used Linguaphone (the older one from the 80's, even better than Assimil actually, I wouldn't suggest it though unless you can find it cheap (I paid like $90))

Chinese-pod is not bad, I would copy-paste there text into MandarinSpot though. The English translations are helpful, but not as helpful as a word-by-word pop-up definitions.

If I did it over again I would go from Assimil straight into native material though, I waited way too long to get into native stuff. Three months of intro material is plenty.


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